One Last Lonely Day
Victoire had never felt lonely. What with her huge family and her crazy best friends Kristy and Ben, how could she have? Except that for the past two years, she was. At first she tried to deny it – she was surrounded by just as many people as ever, even more cousins were at school with her, and Ben and Kristy were sticking to her like glue. But something was missing. Someone was missing.
She had known him literally since birth. Through her entire life, he had always been there; someone to play with, to laugh with, to cry with. They went through the ups and downs of growing up together. The age gap didn't matter – they were best friends, and nothing would separate them. But real life is cruel and cuts though childhood dreams. Real life meant they were two years apart, not just in age, but in school year. Real life had left her lost and alone for her final two years of school. Kristy and Ben had tried to fill the hole, but she knew that the effort was fruitless – no one could replace him.
Rationally, she always knew that the separation was not forever. They had summer and Christmas, and really, it was only two years. And after that they had their own lives to lead. She had to learn to live without seeing him every day. But the problem was, she couldn't. She had finally realised something that everyone had years ago – she liked Ted Lupin. She fancied Ted Lupin. Merlin, she loved Ted Lupin. And it was too late. She was sixteen and stuck at school, while he was eighteen, training to be an Auror and probably dating more girls than currently resided in Gryffindor Tower. Not that she thought he was a player, but he'd always been popular with the girls at school. And she had taken interest too late.
Somehow she had gotten though that first year of separation. Then they had three amazing months all to themselves – and their eleven crazy cousins and all the pseudo cousins they had collected along the way. And in those three months a miracle had occurred. Ted Lupin liked her. Ted Lupin fancied her. Merlin, Ted Lupin loved her. She was so happy that summer, she forgot that real life ever existed.
And then the world came crashing down again. They had to separate for another nine months. No more could they hug, touch and kiss. No more could she see his smile and be happy for the rest of the day. All she could do was write to him, and somehow that didn't feel like enough anymore. And in some cruel twist of fate, Kristy and Ben had started dating. Not that she minded of course, she'd been trying to get them to stop dancing around each other for years, but they were together all the time and it was just another reminder that she and Ted were not.
But today, today was different. Today she embraced her loneliness. Today she beamed at Kristy and Ben and didn't feel jealous at all. Today the dorm was full of giggling girls and covered in junk and half-filled trunks. Today she was going home for good. Today was the last day she would ever feel lonely, because tomorrow she would spend the whole day with Ted, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that… And even when they couldn't spend all day together, they both knew that the other was one floo call or apparition away, not separated by miles and miles and a bunch of wards.
On the train home she sat in her usual carriage – their carriage. Ben and Kristy had always had a different carriage that they shared with a bunch of other people in their year, and some way through the journey Victoire would visit them or they would come and sit with her and Ted. But for the last two years, it had just been her in that carriage. Last year Ben and Kristy had spent a large portion of the journey there with her, but this year they seemed to know they weren't needed. They knew Victoire was feeling lonely again, but they also knew that she didn't care, and was happy to be left alone.
The hours passed slowly, and she found herself subconsciously counting them. The first hour was spent just staring at the scenery – who knew when she'd see it again? Hours 2, 3, 4 and 5 were spent on Prefect duty patrolling the train with the male Ravenclaw Prefect, Samuel Harrison. After that, she holed back up in her carriage and finally admitted that she was really and truly lonely.
She had kept up the façade all day, telling herself that she would see him tomorrow, and what right really did she have to be lonely now? But the truth was, everything about today screamed Teddy. Gryffindor Tower, the Leaving Feast, this carriage. She remembered this day two years ago when she went with him on one last walk around the Castle and its grounds before he left it for the last time as a student. Today, she had to do it by herself. Sure Ben and Kristy were there, but they didn't know about the corner they always sat in when they couldn't sleep at night, or the Room of Requirement where the entire Weasley-Potter clan currently at the school spent every Sunday instead of lunch at the Burrow.
She opened her trunk and pulled out a small wooden box that Uncle Charlie had brought back from Romania once which she used to store those items which were the most precious to her. From inside the box she retrieved a bundle of parchment tied carefully with one of her red and gold ribbons – all the letters he had sent over the past two years – as well as a leather-bound photo album that she had kept since a child. For the next couple of hours she read the letters and flicked through the photo album, reliving the past seventeen years. She laughed at photos of her and her cousins being silly and Ted's accounts of his first few training sessions. She smiled fondly as she read his own reminiscences or turned the page to find pictures of the two of them curled up asleep together as babies or reading in the orchard together last summer. And she cried at the photos of those last few days of last summer and at his own tear-stained handwriting on the days where things went wrong and all he needed was to see her. She knew that she had sent him many similar letters.
Finally the train pulled into the station. She knew she wouldn't see him until tomorrow – whilst every man and his dog saw the Hogwarts Express off on September first, it was often only one parent per family on the last day of term – but it didn't matter. Just being home made her feel so much closer to him.
Victoire stepped off the train for the final time and hugged her mother for the first time since Christmas all the while thinking "just a few more hours, just a few more hours." And just as she was about to ask if they could go home (if she slept she'd see him faster, right?) she saw a flash of turquoise break through the barrier and heard a familiar voice call her name.
Before she could register what was happening, she found herself running across the platform and into his strong arms. And just as suddenly she found herself being spun around and around and heard herself laugh – a proper laugh, one which she had not heard since Christmas. And then she was back on the ground and his lips were on hers and oh she had missed him so much!
He pulled back too soon to look at her, and she saw his face change as he took in her tear-streaked face and mussed up hair that still remained from the train ride. And somehow the last two years didn't matter anymore when he lent back down to whisper in her ear "You'll never be lonely again Vic, I promise."
A/N. Written for the Quidditch League Competition Round 12 - write about a last for your OTP.